Jonathan Littell returns with a new narrator, twenty years after Les Bienveillantes
In an interview on France Culture's "Les Matins", the novelist describes a new book built around Maxime A., a prosecutor serving an authoritarian state, and discusses Europe's place in what he calls an increasingly Darwinian world.
Twenty years ago, Jonathan Littell made a Nazi officer named Max Aue the narrator of Les Bienveillantes, opening with the line "Frères humains, laissez-moi vous raconter comment ça s'est passé." According to France Culture, Littell now gives voice to a different narrator, Maxime A., a man who has lost his father and become a prosecutor in an authoritarian state.
The interview, broadcast on the program "Les Matins" on October 8, has Littell discussing Europe's position in what he describes, per France Culture's headline, as an "incroyablement darwinien" world — a world he suggests leaves Europe as the only viable possibility.
The source material does not specify a title, publisher or publication date for this new work featuring Maxime A., nor further detail on its plot beyond the prosecutor's role and the loss of his father. Readers who keep track of Littell's bibliography will note that this appears to be a new project, distinct from Les Bienveillantes, though no connection between the two narrators is stated beyond the echo of the earlier book's opening line.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
